


One of Me

by missingparentheses



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:22:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25942060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missingparentheses/pseuds/missingparentheses
Summary: In the time before Adora leaves the Horde, Catra confides that she wonders if she's the only one of her kind.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 42





	One of Me

The brush against Adora’s leg was nothing new, but it was more persistent than usual. She tried to cling to the remnants of a dream that had been sweet in its comfortable familiarity—racing the halls of the Fright Zone with Catra when they were younger, hiding around corners, making noises to spook Kyle, tossing pebbles at Octavia—but it was vanishing, the rustling at her feet no longer something she could ignore.

She poked the warm body with a toe. “What’s up?” she whispered.

Catra huffed but said nothing. Adora waited a breath, feeling the heavy grip of sleep begin to pull her down again. But the fidgeting continued. She sighed, reached down till her hand found a limb in the dark, and dragged her best friend up till her head reached the pillow.

“What?” Adora whispered again, unsure whether she was more amused or annoyed. She could faintly make out Catra’s features in the dim glow of the security light in the hall outside the barracks. She looked younger without her mask, strands of dark hair falling across her bichromatic eyes. 

“Didn’t mean to wake you,” Catra whispered back. 

Adora shrugged and yawned. “It’s okay. Tell me what’s up.”

Catra huffed again and flopped onto her back, eyes on the ceiling. “Have you ever seen another one of me?”

Adora’s forehead crinkled. “A what? Like a duplicate?”

“No, dummy.” Catra flung her hand back and into Adora’s stomach, and the ‘oof!’ it elicited had both teenagers giggling and hushing each other. Adora punched her lightly in the shoulder, but she kept listening. “Like, another...cat person.”

“Are you being serious? Where would I have seen one? We know all the same people.”

Catra chuckled. “I guess so.”

“Have you?”

Catra pressed her lips into a tight line. Then she rolled to face Adora but still couldn’t meet her eyes. Instead she looked past her into the darkness. 

“I must have. I mean...my mother? I must have had a family like me.”

“I wonder what it’s like to have a mother,” Adora said.

“Yeah,” Catra chuckled again, “a real one that actually likes me.”

“Shadow Weaver likes us well enough.”

Catra stifled the laughter that tried burst out of her. “ _Us?_ You, not me. She’s never liked me.”

“Says who?”

Catra finally met her eye. “You’re such an idiot. She put it right in our names. Adora, for the one she adores. Catra, for the weird cat girl.”

“You’re not weird, Catra,” Adora insisted. Then she smiled. “Okay, you _are_ , but not because you’re a cat. Just because you’re a weirdo.”

Catra smacked her in the stomach again and they laughed, tussling beneath the thin blanket, fingers jabbing each other’s rib cages. But when Catra retreated, Adora didn’t. She kept her palm resting against Catra’s side, tucked into the dip at her waist. Catra kept her breathing measured at the feeling of Adora’s thumb stroking back and forth beneath the hem of her nightshirt. 

“What are you doing?” she whispered.

“Shh,” Adora hushed back. “Testing something.”

Catra searched her eyes for clues while Adora watched the motion of her own hand, amusement lighting her face. Then—and Catra wouldn’t have believed it were possible in the tight confines of the bunk—Adora scooted in even closer toward her. Catra blinked but willed herself not to move a muscle.

“There,” Adora finally whispered. “There it is.”

“What is?”

“My favorite thing about you being a cat. You’re purring.”

The low sound Catra hadn’t even noticed rumbling out of her stopped immediately. She rolled onto her back again, and Adora pulled her hand away.

“Don’t make fun of me,” Catra grumbled.

“I’m not making fun of you! I love it. I really love it.” 

Catra just stared at the ceiling, face hard and embarrassed. Adora stretched out her other arm from where it had been tucked beneath her head and began to stroke the hair back from Catra’s forehead. 

“I love your purring, Catra,” she said again. “It means you’re happy. I like when you’re happy.”

Catra struggled to maintain her anger against the feel of Adora’s fingers in her hair. She closed her eyes. “I just don’t like being the only one of me.”

Adora smiled. “I like that you’re the only one of you.” She leaned her head in, nose almost brushing her friend’s neck. Catra could feel her breath rustling her fur. “I like how soft you are too. Nobody else is so soft.”

“How do you know? Who else you been petting?”

Adora chuckled. “Rogelio. He’s _way_ less soft.”

“Kyle would finally snap if you tried to pet Rogelio.”

They laughed together again yet more quietly this time, neither willing to upset the sincerity of the moment. Adora continued running her fingers through Catra’s hair, and when the purring began again, they both smiled.

“Can you do it louder?” Adora whispered. “Can you control it?”

“It’s kind of involuntary. But...you could probably make it louder.”

“Oh yeah?” Adora grinned as she slid her free hand back toward Catra’s waist, fingers grazing the downy fur on her stomach. She tested the effect by trailing them slowly from one hip to the other, feeling the dull vibration through her palm, though the volume remained constant. 

Catra propped her head up on her arm to watch. “That the best you can do?”

Adora narrowed her eyes and grinned. As she watched Catra’s face, she slowly dragged her fingertips up beneath the fabric of her shirt, drawing small circles in her fur between the boney peaks of Catra’s rib cage. Further still, and her hand was between Catra’s breasts. She laid her palm flat to feel the vibration and dipped her nose again into the curve of her neck.

“Is that the best _you_ can do?” Adora whispered.

Catra found she couldn’t form words, but she shook her head. Adora lifted her palm again until only the fingertips were on Catra’s chest, then began to walk them back down the length of her body, slowly. Catra’s breath caught in her throat as the deep rumbling grew louder in anticipation. Adora’s fingers danced the length of her torso, her voice whispering in time with the pounding of Catra’s heart.

_“Here...kitty...kitty...”_

A finger reached the waistband of her shorts, and Adora glanced Catra’s way, waiting for a sign. Catra nodded her head almost imperceptibly, and Adora’s hand began to slide inside.

“Hey!”

From across the room a garbled voice sent a shock of adrenaline shooting through their veins, and Adora pulled her hand free in a flash. Catra lept from her side and curled into a heap at the foot of the bed before the mumbling continued, revealing Lonnie’s usual sleep-talking. The purring had stopped; the only sound between them now was their breathing as they desperately tried to slow their racing hearts. But when the room had quieted again, Adora poked her friend with her toe.

“Goodnight, weirdo.”

“Night, dummy.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Catradora fic but hopefully not my last.  
> [Come say hello on Tumblr if you're into that kinda thing!](https://missingparentheses.tumblr.com/)  
> 


End file.
